Monthly Archives: August 2015

Jake Milofsky, a native of Squirrel Hill, is the Tree Care and Restoration Coordinator at Tree Pittsburgh, a non-profit dedicated to growing and protecting the City’s urban forest. Since 2011, he has worked with community, City, and industry partners to facilitate tree care activities with volunteers throughout Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Jake also provides technical support for communities interested in restoring the health and sustainability of their local green spaces.

Jake Milofsky, Tree Care and Restoration Coordinator at Tree Pittsburgh, engages in some mulch management during a tree care project.

Years in the Pittsburgh area? 22 total (age 3-16, 21-27, 29-32)

What was your first job? My first full-time job after college was with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, where I worked as a Field Ecologist for about three years before leaving for graduate school.

How were you drawn to nonprofit work? As my career goals were coming into focus, I knew I wanted to work outdoors but I also wanted to do work with a social component like planning or community organizing. By doing environmental fieldwork in the non-profit sector, I found the social component I was looking for by working with community volunteers to do the outdoor work I enjoy.

What is the first thing you do each day? After turning off my alarm every morning, I like to open up my Google News app. Not only does the light help my eyes adjust, but I have plenty of good conversation fodder throughout the day.

What keeps you motivated? The volunteers I work with keep me motivated most of all. We work with close to a thousand volunteers each year, and it’s extremely rare for any of them to show up with a bad attitude. Even if I’m tired or a little off at the beginning of an event, I’m always in a good mood and energized afterward.

I’ve worked with some incredibly dedicated individuals who repeatedly humble me with the energy they bring to these voluntary activities they are passionate about. I’m lucky to be a part of it, and recognizing that keeps me motivated to do a good job.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given? “Seek out mentors, and spend time with them”

What are you reading? Right now I’m reading The Millionaire Next Door. It’s about how the media portrays wealthy people as driving flashy cars and wearing fancy clothes, when in reality, many of the people who are actually wealthy in this country live very modest lifestyles, which is why they’re wealthy! Also, many people who lead flashy lifestyles may have high incomes, but very little wealth. I don’t have any illusions about becoming extremely wealthy, but the book is a good reminder to live at or below your means, and a welcome counterweight to the influence of our consumer society.

What is your go-to time-saving/productivity hack? Put it on the calendar. In my world, if it’s not on my calendar, it doesn’t exist and it probably won’t ever happen.

“I’ve worked with some incredibly dedicated individuals who repeatedly humble me with the energy they bring to these voluntary activities they are passionate about.”

What major issue or trend is currently affecting your corner of the nonprofit sector? The need for population diversity in trees is big in urban forestry right now. Diseases, insects, and the prediction of continued warming temperatures mean we need to think ahead and create landscapes that are resilient. If we do a good job, the urban forest should be able to survive these environmental challenges and continue to provide us with its many benefits. To create these landscapes, however, will take education and continued advocacy on the part of those who share this understanding.

What is one goal that you hope to accomplish in 2015? With close to 15,000 new trees planted on streets and in parks throughout Pittsburgh, it is very important to keep them pruned on a set cycle. This ensures they fit into their surroundings and don’t get in the way of pedestrians or vehicles. Our pruning goal for 2015 is 2,500 trees. So far this year our staff and volunteers have pruned just over 2,100 trees, so I think we’ll get there.

What is the best thing about the nonprofit sector in Pittsburgh? The best thing about the non-profit sector in Pittsburgh is the feeling of community and willingness to partner between organizations. One may think that competition for funding or other resources could cause conflict, but instead I see example after example of working together to make projects more effective.

As students ready themselves to return to their classrooms, a report from the RAND Corporation looks past test scores to the issue of Pennsylvania’s student achievement gap – one of the largest in the country. Although data from 2013 Pennsylvania standardized tests ranks the Commonwealth among the top ten states in student performance (according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)) RAND found sizable achievement gaps according to race/ethnicity, economic status, parent education, and school district.

Some study findings:

An achievement gap by race/ethnicity: The proportion of white students achieving proficiency or above in reading and math was 24 to 38 percent larger than African-American and Latino students.

An achievement gap by economic status: Students from lower economic statuses had lower proficiency scores, and were estimated to be an average of two or three years behind their peers from higher economic statuses.

An achievement gap by district: After removing the highest and lowest performing school districts, RAND found performance gaps between districts similar those identified in the race/ethnicity and economic analyses. Low performing school districts were identified in both urban and rural areas.

The report, The Economic Impact of Achievement Gaps in Pennsylvania’s Public Schools by Lynne Karoly, also compares the achievement of Pennsylvania students both nationally and globally, and examines the impact that gaps in academic performance may have on Pennsylvania’s economy. The full report is available at the RAND website.

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Nonprofit Resource Memo is an informational blog for the nonprofit community in western Pennsylvania (and beyond) featuring posts on news, research, policy initiatives and trends that impact the human and social services sector.